A/N- Hello again! I see you have made it to chapter 3. I hope you're enjoying the story. Please could you do me a massive favor and leave a review with your thoughts! Thank you!

Disclaimer- I still don't own anything to do with the characters or setting. Sucks, I know.

Dean rode in a car to the train station, something he had never done before. Most of the time he walked to get across the district, although he did sometimes jump onto a back of a wagon when the owner wasn't looking.

As they reached the train station, cameras and reporters were everywhere. He kept a calm composure, putting on his usual cocky smile, as they waited for the train doors to open. Occasionally, he would take a glimpse at Kai, who completely ignored him except for the odd glare she sent his way. Unlike him, she waved to the cameras, smiling, confident.

Finally, the train doors opened and Dean almost ran onboard, glad to be out of the camera's view. The train has already started to depart, throwing Dean off guard slightly. It wasn't one of the high-speed trains, those were for the districts furthest away from the Capitol, ensuring they all arrived the next morning, but Dean was surprised at how fast it still went.

Dean was amazed by the tribute train. Each of them were given their own chambers, including a bedroom, changing room and bathroom. Tessa told Dean that he could do what he wanted, but just to be ready in half an hour for dinner. Dean nodded his head and rummaged around the room, looking through the clothes and ornaments around him. He had never seen anything so grandeur, not even the richest in District Four had expensive things like these. He even played around with the shower, never having one before. He was delightfully surprised when hot water burst out of it.

Nearly an hour later, Dean emerged from his room, still in the same things he arrived in. He entered the dining room carriage and stared at the table that was filled with various dishes. He noticed Kai was already there, giving him an annoyed look, making Dean smirk. He assumed that she had not been allowed to eat until he arrived.

"Nice of you to join us, Dean," a middle-aged man said to him gruffly. Dean recognised him as Robert Singer, winner of the thirty-ninth hunger games, and an ex-friend of his father.

"And hello to you too, Bobby," Dean said, slightly stiffly. "I haven't seen you since you chased my Dad out of your house, waving a knife at him," Dean recalled. After his mom died, John had met Bobby, although Dean wasn't sure why, and over the years had become close friends with the victor. However, a few years ago, there was a huge argument, with Dean vaguely remembering it about himself and Sam, causing John to be run out of the house with a knife, tugging a confused Sam and Dean along with him. As soon as they had returned back to the house, John had made them swear that they would never see or speak to Bobby again, but considering he was being taken to his imminent death, Dean figured it would be ok to break the rule now.

"Yeah, well, your daddy just has that effect on people I guess," Bobby replied.

Dean smiled slightly. "Yeah, I guess he does."

"Dean, this is Pamela Barnes", Bobby said, pointing at the woman next to him. Dean vaguely remembered her, she was the winner of the fifty-eighth hunger games, winning them at seventeen years old. "She's going to be a mentor too."

"Hey," Dean simply said, and she smiled back.

"She says she's partially blind, but you make a rude gesture at her, and she'll bite your head off," Bobby said, smiling, and Pamela nudged him with her elbow.

"Ignore him," she told Dean. "Now, we can either mentor you two together, or we can mentor you separately. Bobby could be a mentor for one of you, and I'll mentor the other. It's up to you two."

"Separately," Kai said quickly, glaring at Dean to dare say otherwise.

Dean shrugged. The less time he was with that psychopath, the better. "Works for me."

"I'll take Dean. Pamela, you'll mentor Kai," Bobby suggested. Dean nodded his head, seeming apathetic, but secretly glad that he was with Bobby. At least he was with someone he knew, someone who had treated him like a son until the incident with his dad.

"That's fine by me." Pamela said, turning around and bent over to look for something in a cupboard.

"Who's Jesse?" Dean asked, noticing the tattoo on her lower back, saying 'Jesse Forever'.

Pamela laughed slightly. "Well, it wasn't forever," Pamela told him, turning to face him.

Dean tutted slightly. "His loss," Dean said to her smiling, and she simply shrugged in response.

Dean, Kai, Bobby, Pamela and Tessa all tucked into their dinner. Dean ignored anything that looked like fruit or vegetables and tucked into anything unhealthy with meat. He discovered he particularly enjoyed the bacon cheeseburgers, and the pie. Dean had not had pie for years, not since his mom had died. The Capitol pie was not as good as the pie his mom used to make, but it was still good. Kai, on the other hand, did the exact opposite and stuck only to fruit and salad, eating what Dean preferred to call 'rabbit food'.

After they had all finished their diner, Dean feeling slightly sick from the amount he ate, they all headed to another compartment to watch the reaping. After the reaping ceremony was shown, Dean had an idea who the main competitors were. Both the boys and girls from District One and Two-who had all volunteered and were at the ripe old age of eighteen, the boy from Three, Kai, the boy from Seven and the boy from Eight.

Dean sighed, the Career pack looked like a tough one to beat this year, and he didn't like the cruel glint in the eye of the District One boy. Kai announced she was going to bed shortly after the television recap ended, as did Pamela and Tessa. But Dean remained rooted to the couch, wanting to talk to his mentor.

"I have to win, Bobby. I have to win for Sammy," Dean said finally. "How am I going to win against the Careers?"

"Sponsors" Bobby grumbled. "It doesn't matter how good you are at fighting or hiding, you won't survive without sponsors. When you're dehydrated, hungry or freezing, they will provide you the gifts to survive."

"How do I get them?"

"Make them like you, ya ijdit. You need a game plan, about how you're going to act. Are you going to be shy, cheeky, flirtatious?" Bobby asked him.

"I don't know, I never really thought about it," Dean admitted, "What do you think?"

"Well you're good looking and you look mature for your age, the Capitol will fall in love with you. Seeing you around the girls in Four, I recon you should go with flirtatious." Bobby admitted, taking another gulp of his whiskey.

Dean nodded his head, he could do that. Since he was ten, he knew he was defined as good looking, and that he had good charisma. He had lost count of the number of times he had sweet talked his way out of trouble, or even just giving his most winning smile.

"I can do that."

"Good," Bobby replied. The pair sat there in an awkward silence, Dean tapping his fingers on the leather couch and Bobby turning his empty whiskey glass in his hands. After a few minutes, Bobby was the first to break the silence. "You know, when I ran your father out of my house, it wasn't meant to be forever, and it wasn't meant for you and Sam. It was a heat of the moment thing, with a little help of this," raising his glass slightly. Dean merely shrugged in response.

Bobby sighed, knowing Dean well enough that he would blame himself. "You know it wasn't your fault, don't you? Me and your daddy, well we disagreed with a lot of things, and well things got out of hand, and you and Sam just got caught in the cross fire. I was trying to get into John's thick skull that you were missing your childhood, but instead I just pushed you all away. For that, I'm sorry."

Dean nodded his head, glancing up from his hands to look at Bobby, and smiled. "It's fine, there was nothing to forgive."

Bobby grinned in return. He had missed the boys. "Now you had better get some shut eye. Gotta look pretty for the cameras tomorrow," Bobby told him. Dean did as he was told and headed to his chambers, falling into an uneasy sleep.